IRRIGATION.

The Commissioner discusses the subject of irrigation at some length and with ability in his report. His conclusions have already been quoted, and it would be unfair to attempt to 'condense his views as set forth by himself. It is well, however, to call attention to the fact that he states there has been a falling off of 2,642 original homestead entries made during the year, as compared with the previous year, and in final entries of the same class the decrease was 394, while the total net decrease in the number of final entries of all kinds during the same period was 7,736, and from this, and the great rush for homesteads at the re. cent opening of lands in Oklahoma, he considers it apparent that the demand for homes on the public domain is greater than ever before in the history of the country.

PROTECTION OF PUBLIC LANDS AND TIMBER BY SPECIAL AGENTS.

One thousand seven hundred and fourteen cases of depredation were referred to the special agents for investigation, hearings were ordered in 238 cases, 694 cases were held for cancellation, 444 canceled, and 1,846 examined and passed. Final action was taken in 3,401 cases. and there are now pending in the division (June 30, 1891) 5,525, land cases. Four hundred and eighty-eight cases have been reported by special agents during the year, involving public timber and the products therefrom to the value of $2,347,473.11 recoverable to the Government. The amount accepted under propositions of settlement was $53,863.03; the amount paid in during the year on propositions of settlement accepted during previous years was $439.07, and the amount recovered through legal proceedings so far of record (the United States attorneys' reports for various districts not having been received up to the date of preparing this report) is $62,402.47. This makes a total amount of repayments on account of depredations upon the public timber of $116,704.57, an excess over the appropriation for this branch of the public service.

On the 1st of July, 1891, as far as reported, there were shown to be pending in the United States courts 203 civil suits for the recovery of a total amount of $4,451,305.07 for the value of timber reported to have been unlawfully cut from public lands, and 361 criminal prosecutions for the act of cutting or removing timber in violation of law.

In addition to the above result of work accomplished by the special timber agents, they have during the year investigated and reported upon a large number of fraudulent land entries.

FORESTS.

Attention has before been called to the fact that the most valuable timber on the public lands is being rapidly exhausted.

The provision in the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stats., 1095), for the establishment of reservations will do much to preserve valuable forests from spoliation.

The Commissioner is of the opinion that the necessities for a general law upon this subject can not be too strongly urged upon the attention of Congress, and that the provisions of the law should be in the line suggested in the report made on Senate bill No. 1394, to which reference was made in the Secretary's last annual report (p. 16). In this connection the Commissioner calls attention to the disadvantages incident to the execution of the laws through special agents, in consequence of the form in which appropriations have been made by Congress for this service.

The appropriations read as follows:

DEPREDATIONS ON PUBLIC TIMBER: To meet the expenses of protecting timber on the public lands, one hundred thousand dollars.

PROTECTING PUBLIC LANDS: For the protection of public lands from the illegal and fraudulent entry or appropriation, one hundred and twenty thousand dollars.

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SETTLEMENT OF CLAIMS FOR SWAMP LAND AND SWAMP-LAND INDEMNITY: For salaries and expenses of agents employed in adjusting claims for swamp lands and for indemnity for swamp lands, twenty thousand dollars: Provided, That agents and others employed under this and the appropriations for "Depredations on the public timber," and "Protecting public lands," while traveling on duty, shall be allowed per diem in lieu of subsistence at a rate not exceeding three dollars per day, and for actual necessary expenses for transportation.

He continues: Under these provisions the Comptroller of the Treasury holds that the per diem and expense account of an agent appointed to investigate public-timber trespasses can not be allowed when it appears that the agent was employed during the time stated in the work of investigating fraudulent entries of public land or in reporting on swamp land selections. The same rule is applied to each of the three classes of agents. But it not infrequently occurs that swamp land selections, fraudulent land entries, and timber depredations are to be investigated in the same locality. Under the law as heretofore framed in such case it is absolutely necessary, regardless of expense or loss of time, to send three agents to the locality referred to, when one agent could investigate and report all the cases in a particular neighborhood, taking them in proper order. By adopting this method of procedure the expenses of transporting additional men would be avoided and the time lost in unnecessary travel could be profitably employed.. In other words, the efficiency of the service would be promoted and the expenses reduced.

Actuated by these considerations the Commissioner, in submitting estimates for the coming fiscal year, has consolidated these three items for special service in the following language:

Depredations of public timber, protecting public lands, and settlement of claims for swamp lands, and swamp land indemnity; to meet expenses of protecting timber on public lands and for the more efficient execution of the law and rules relating to the cutting thereof; of protecting public lands from illegal and fraudulent entry or appropriation, and of adjusting claims for swamp lands and indemnity for swamp lands: Provided, That agents and others employed under this appropriation shall be allowed per diem in lieu of subsistence at a rate not exceeding $3 per day and actual necessary expenses for transportation; three hundred thousand dollars.

Under this form of appropriation agents may with freedom be assigned to duty in either branch of the service. The efficiency of the service would be promoted and the expense to the government reduced by the consolidation and the recommendation is approved for your favorable consideration.

The reason for the increase in the estimate for this branch of the service of $60,000 over that for the current year is due to the examinations and investigations connected with the administration of the laws of March 3, 1891. The designation of the tracts on which the cutting of timber will be permitted and the enforcement of needful rules and regu lations governing the same will greatly increase the demans's for the service of special agents; further, the period of limitations established by said act, within which all investigations must be made as to the validity of entries, and the large accumulation of work awaiting examination within a limited period, necessitates the proposed increased force of special agents.

SWAMP-LAND GRANTS.

After the lapse of forty years swamp-land grants yet remain unadjusted. Several methods have been exhausted by the states, viz, selection by the United States surveyor-general, by agents appointed by the states to offer proof of swampy character, and of selection from the field notes of survey. Now some states dispute the sufficiency of the field notes to justify a rejection of the states' claim to lands conclusively shown by the field notes not to be of a swampy character.

The act of March 3, 1857, confirmed to several states all lands selected and reported up to that date. By such confirmation the states became possessed of large quantities of fine agricultural lands, erroneously selected as swamp lands. The evident purpose of this act was to aid the adjustment of these grants, but it seems to have produced the effect of inviting additional claims in great numbers, and, as there is no limitation upon the time within which selections may be made, no estimate can be made as to the amount which may be selected.

Claims for cash and land indemnity are still pending on 2,312,949.22 acres, and several states claim large quantites of land subject to cash and land indemnity for which they have not as yet presented formal lists. Some of the states have by legislative action transferred their rights to cash and land indemnity to the several counties; and the counties in many instances authorize energetic agents to prosecute their claims upon contingent commisstons, and the government has been put to great expense in examining lands selected indiscriminately by them. Unless an act is passed limiting the time within which selections may be made, this expense upon the government will be continued from year to year for an indefinite period of time, and while legislation limiting the time within which selection may be made of swamp lands in place may not be deemed expedient, it seems some limitation is neces

sary upon the period within which indemnity may be claimed, whether in land or cash.

The Commissioner is of the opinion that within a period of three years all legitimate claims could be filed, and recommends legislation forever barring all claims for cash, land, or other indemnity under the swamp-land laws, not presented within three years from the date of the passage of such an act. As this privilege has existed since 1858 the period of limitation suggested would give ample time for the assertion of any claims not heretofore filed. There is necessity for Congressional action in the matter of the adjustment of these grants, and it is recommended that the matter be specially called to the attention of Congress.

GENERAL LAND OFFICE NEEDS ROOM IN A GOVERNMENT BUILDING.

The accommodations now afforded to the General Land Office are inadequate for the proper disposal of its great and extending business and for the care and preservation of its important records, upon which rests the foundation of titles of millions of homes upon the public domain.

The portion of the Patent Office building assigned to the Land Office was diminished during the last year, and it became necessary to secure quarters elsewhere, necessarily involving great inconvenience, danger to records, and loss of time in the transaction of the public business. By the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stats., 941), an appropriation was made of $16,000 for the rent of buildings for the use of the General Land Office, but sufficient space could not be found in an available building, and it was deemed inadvisable to scatter different portions of the office over the city, thus exposing the records to loss, injury, or destruction. Furthermore, to separate the several divisions of the office would greatly interfere with the dispatch of the public business, as there is an intimate relationship and interdependence existing between all these. Two thousand eight hundred dollars only have therefore been used of the $16,000 available under said act.

The Commissioner recommends the erection of a suitable public building, owned by the government, affording adequate accommodations, and that proper provisions be made therein for the greater security of Land Office records. He suggests that such a building might be further utilized for the preservation of the records of the several land offices and offices of the surveyor-general when discontinued; that there would be great advantages in the concentration of the records in one place, and that in the way suggested it might be accomplished with comparatively little additional expense.

These suggestions are worthy of serious consideration, and the attention of Congress, it is recommended, should be called to this important subject, so that it will be impressed with the necessity for immediate action.

IMPORTANT LAND DECISIONS.

In the disposition of cases arising under the administration of the public-land laws many new and interesting questions have come before the Department. In their solution the Secretary acknowledges the very valuable assistance given by the Assistant Attorney-General assigned to this Department, and of the departmental First Assistant Secretary. Among others may be mentioned those cases arising under the late act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat., 1095), repealing the timber-culture act, and making many other modifications of the previous laws with respect to our public lands.

CONFIRMATION OF ENTRIES.

Section 7 of said act makes special provision for the confirmation of two classes of entries in the following terms:

All entries made under the preëmption, homestead, desert-land, or timber-culture laws, in which final proof and payment may have been made and certificate issued, and to which there are no adverse claims originating prior to final entry and which have been sold or incumbered prior to the first day of March, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, and after final entry to bona fide purchasers, or incumbrancers, for a valuable consideration, shall, unless upon an investigation by a Government agent, fraud on the part of the purchaser has been found, be confirmed and patented upon presentation of satisfactory proof to the Land Department of such sale or incumbrance: Provided, That after the lapse of two years from the date of the issuance of the receiver's receipt upon the final entry of any tract of land under the homestead, timber-culture, desert-land, or preëmption laws, or under this act, and when there shall be no pending contest or protest against the validity of such entry, the entryman shall be entitled to a patent conveying the land by him entered, and the same shall be issued to him; but this proviso shall not be construed to require the delay of two years from the date of said entry before the issuing of a patent therefor.

In the construction of that portion of said section which applies to entries transferred or incumbered prior to March 1, 1888, it was held in Axford vs. Shanks, 12 L. D., 250, and same on review, 13 L. D., 292, that the intention of said section is to confirm entries allowed in the absence of adverse claims originating prior to final entry, where parties, relying in good faith upon the issuance of final receipt and certificate, had invested money on the strength of the prima facie title held by the entryman, and that the confirmatory operation of this legislation is not defeated by the pendency of contests or protests, and this construction is now the rule of the Department.

As to entries included within the proviso to said section, where no interests of transferees are involved, it was held, in the departmental instructions of April 25, 1891, 12 L. D., 522, that said proviso is one of limitation upon contests initiated after the passage of said act, but does not relieve entries from the effect of contests that were pending at the date of said enactment.

It was further held in the construction of said proviso that in all cases